England, 1843: Twenty-year-old Rein Pierson embarks on a voyage to America to escape a past she is desperately trying to forget. She boards a massive steamship—one that conceals all manner of peculiar phenomenon. Aboard the ship, Rein meets a man who seems the embodiment of her dreams, but, like everything else she uncovers, he harbors a deep secret. As Insperatus unfolds, Rein Pierson finds herself in a whirlwind of emotion—confused about her growing love for the dashing but mystifying Traith Harker, frightened by his secret that reveals the supernatural world that is encroaching above her own, and heartbroken as tragedy disrupts her voyage.

So you tied my poll between vampire and hybrid, for book two. That means I’ll just have to decide between the two, hm?

Well than… an update.

I am currently building a new website which should be up and running within the next month or so. As I believe I’ve said before, on the new website Insperatus will be sold directly, and there will be numerous more activities. You’ll know when it’s finished–there will be red flags everywhere on this site, trust me.

School? Ha. I finish my first semester December 15th, and boyyyyy that date cannot come fast enough! This has been the roughest 18 credits I’ve whethered–also the first, and unfortunately not the last. I’ve been taking care of patients in the hospital once a week, and the other days I school/study/homework it up.

Luckily, I woke up this morning with a sort of brainstorm. I ran from bed to my laptop, still bleary-eyed and uncoordinated. I typed another chapter, which now, is a huge deal. I used to spit out chapters like nothing, but since I’ve had such a rough time with my sequel it’s been like pulling a tooth. I don’t think there’s ever been something I love so much that I actually avoid doing sometimes… anyway, there’s a new chapter added on, I hope to write one more before bed tonight, and that’ll leave me with about two chapterd until the sequel is officially closed. This is a big step, guys, even though you can’t see anything.

Here’s a challenge for you, now. If you are able, leave a comment below this post, answering this question: What is your favorite thing about vampire books? You know, what draws you to them so? The romance? The love triangles? The action? Anything. Write your thoughts. Start a discussion. Jump start your imagination.

Hey guys! My poll over there is tied! How the devil can I make a decision based on what my readers want if it’s tied??? Get voting!

Anyway, I figured I’d drop in and let you all know what’s going on in my life and in the life of my book, Insperatus!

First of all, I am going to be creating a new website soon. I don’t have a projected date yet, as I’m waiting on a few different things, but I will keep you all posted about it. The biggest advantage in creating this new website will be direct-buy online, on the Kelly Varesio/Insperatus Website, instead of through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or other third parties only. This handy dandy feature allows me to not only remove a third party, it will also allow you to buy copies directly through me, wherein they can be personalized however you like! Sound exciting or what?

I also want to let all of you who have read Insperatus, and even future readers, know that the sequel is near finished! I have tied all the pieces together, finished my finale, and am closing the ending–which total, will only take me about 5-10 more pages of writing. This is a big step for the sequel [who’s title will be released once editing is finished] and it is a long-awaited green light for the next step.

For now, the rest of 2009, I will not be touring/signing for Insperatus as there are a number of other concerns that unfortunately take priority. However, I am definitely attending Wizard World 2010, in Philly, again, and will also be booking to guest at many other conventions. So starting in 2010, I hope to again be actively promoting Insperatus on the road. Until then, I am finishing my sequel, working with websites, and searching for a good agent. Oh, and I’m still attempting to survive within the rigorous RN college program–which thankfully ends its first semester December 15th! That means homework and studying are in order for the rest of November (wow, how did that happen already??) and the beginning of the Christmas month.

Until next time; hope everyone had a spooktastic Halloween–I know I did–and many wishes for all the upcoming holidays!

So luckily, this past weekend I went camping in Lancaster with my laptop…

And I completed two more chapters of the sequel to Insperatus!

This leaves me with only about eight more to write! I tell you this, because I am giving YOU, my readers, the opportunity to take part in the ending!

What does this mean? Well, I’ve started a poll, to the right of this update. You technically don’t get to know WHO I’m talking about in regards to the poll question–could be an old character face, could be a new one–but nonetheless, I need YOUR HELP! I’ve decided to turn my writer’s indecisiveness into reader action, so please.

As much as I loved the summer, and spent the beginning of September mourning its loss, I am strangely super excited for this autumn. It’s just the best, comfy, sweatshirt weather, you know? And you get to decorate all country-like, and haunted-like in October.

As you pretty much know by now Fall brought on a huge change in my life: college. I miss my high school, especially since my graduating class consisted of 26 kids that were like brothers and sisters, but at the same time I am happy to be in college. It’s a lot more relaxed, and I’ve finally found my niche, figured out what to expect, and what college expects from me. Of course you can probably infer what that means. My writing is priority again. *Applause of thrill!*

So want some updates? Insperatus is now available on the Kindle! I nudged Borders to hurry with their reprocessing (yes, they’re STILL reprocessing from my publisher change!). I am part of a writing group that (when I get to attend) helps me get in the mood and imspires me to write even more.

Aaaaand…

I have only ten more chapters to write until the sequel is finished!

I would love to be able to give you more details on the sequel, but I unfortunately will have to withhold for a while longer. The process is basically as follows: I write a final ending. I reactivate my editor and begin the 6-month long editing process. And once that is done, I publish. So all in all, we’re unfortunately looking at about another year until official release, but hey–it’ll be worth the wait, I promise. And in between that time, excerpts will be unveiled.

Until then, buy if you haven’t, read, and re-read Insperatus! In a time where times are tough, so many people don’t realize the amazing power of reading. Really getting to know characters that are just like you living in a slightly different world is such a cool thing. It’s such a refresher. For those of you waiting for number two, let your mind wander and wonder by checking out my DeviantArt sketches of the characters. Imagine a plotline like no other…

Wow, guys. It’s been over a month. For all of you reading this (and especially my daily guys) forgive me for my delays in writing.

It’s hard being a college-going-nursing-school-working-crazy-credit-amount-taking-rare-to-see-anymore author! I wish I could pour every ounce of my time into writing and promoting, but I simply can’t with nursing school going on. A two-year RN program sounds impressive, but it definitely whoops your butt on most occasions–and I’m only beginning!

The status of Insperatus? Hovering. It’s hovering. It’s selling, it’s being printed, but it isn’t currently being driven forcefully forward into the faces of big-deal-type people. For those of you interested, I am on my age-old, death-defying quest for an agent, who can fight and win over a dragon of a publisher–a big publisher–that will totally put Insperatus on the face of the literary map along side Twilight, True Blood, and every other vampire story that got lucky enough to find that special someone–one more elusive I think than even true love and the prince or princess that comes along with it. Regardless of the trials, there are many queries for Insperatus circulating the US, in the hands of agents [literally] or in their inboxes [electronically]. Meanwhile, my ***sequel*** is almost finished!

All that, among other things, adds that extra gnashing-at-your-teeth aspect to living quite a bit. It’s an insanely occupied life I currently lead, but I LOVE it.

I want readers, or possible readers, to know that there is so much headed your way coming out of my head to your hands in the future, you couldn’t imagine. But the calendar really is rearing it’s ugly head and stealing time away from me like it enjoys to at the moment.

My last comment of this post is in regards to Insperatus–especially to those of you who have not read it yet, but who are merely looking. I can’t stress enough how important readers are to an author, because they make or break them. An author has no power over his book. I’ve probably said before, the best book ever written in the history of history may never be published or go anywhere if no one bothers to take the time to read it. Not that Insperatus falls into the category of the best book in the history of history, [although I’d like to think so ;)] but I think that viewers tend to define or label the book as a ‘romance’ or ‘vampire book’ or ‘fantasy novel,’ when really, most don’t know that it truly does have a bit of everything in it. Action, history, romance, fantasy, the paranorma, mystery, suspense… Insperatus honestly has no true genre. But together, all those genres can merge to form something unlike Twilight or Cirque de Freak, or even a Nicolas Sparks book for that matter. Blended together in one book, in Insperatus, all those genres really do bring something different to the table, and I really do urge you to order a copy online or through your bookstore. You and your expectations will definitely be at least pleasantly surprised.

And if you are waivering, please read the excerpts available on this website!

I’ll give you a little insider on my authorian life. My family, friends, co-workers, and pretty much all acquainances attained as a normal eighteen year old girl, don’t ever really see me as an author. To them, I’m just a nursing student, and…well, and eighteen year old girl. Even though most of my close people know I wrote a book, they rarely talk about it. And, ironically, I come from a family that doesn’t particularly enjoy reading. Don’t get me wrong–they’re beyond proud, but after the first week of being published, their only question [when they do think of my book] is, “Oh! So how much have you made so far?”

Regarding money. Any author’s usual deprivation.

So I’ve always loved the medical field, and I am very excited about nursing. But the college has this funny way of scaring students. I’ve already got homework due the first day that I’ve yet to do, and I have over 12 textbooks, 9 of them being nursing books. I was told I’m going to have to quit any job I may have, as the nursing course will be too rigorous for working. Therefore, I pretty much ought to be working as much as possible this summer…

But where does that annoying working world leave time for me to write? Or spend time simply being an ‘author’ for that matter? In a nutshell: it DOESN’T. You just have to somehow make time.

UNFORTUNATELY, that’s been strikingly hard to do, lately. I haven’t been able to promote Insperatus as ‘rigorously’ as I’d hoped so far this summer. While the booksignings I’ve had did do wonderfully well, I really desire to put my whole self into accumulating readers and showing the world what a unique read Insperatus really is. But it doesn’t matter if it’s the best book ever written–if no one knows about it, it won’t go anywhere. So that’s what I’m going to really focus on in all my free college time–and since I am a writer, and always will be, no matter what, I’ll try my hardest to make that time.

Time to not only promote Insperatus, but to finish the sequel. Which is going well. Although I am having quite a bit of writers block, lately…

Lastly, for my readers (or future ones):

I’m going to put another Insperatus excerpt on this site! I’ve kept (and will keep) the prologue and first chapter available for reading on here, because it gives you a taste of the setting, background, and characters of Insperatus. But I decided to reveal a piece more in the middle of the novel–a piece that greatly differs from the excerpt placed up here so far. I hope that reading the new excerpt will entice those interested to pick up a copy of Insperatus–

–which is available for sale online on most all sites EXCEPT Borders.com now. It always takes them twice the time to reprocess titles. But in time, it will be there, too.

Until tomorrow–or sometime in the future–

-K-

PS–I’ve been thinking about some vampire concepts, variations, and similarities. Be sure to check in soon, because I plan on writing a little essay on my take, as well as other takes, on the curse that’s taken over the world. The vampire.

So, unfortunately, (as it sort of says in the right-columned box over there) Insperatus is currently being reprocessed on all websites [due to my publisher change], so I was told, between all the sites, it will take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks for Insperatus to be available again. This sucks, I know, but I think it’s only a short time to wait for something so huge. Remember that books are always available through me, at booksignings, and will soon be available on ebay through store sales.

Anyway, besides all that, there is good news. Another way, if you simply can not stand the wait of 8 weeks to order it online, you have the option of downloading an e-book version! The e-book is a new feature to Insperatus, and it allows readers to instantly access and begin reading on the computer, without the shipping or the wait. The e-book version of Insperatus is now for sale on sites such as booksonboard.com, lybrary.com, and various others.

I just wanted to share something with anyone checking out kellyvaresio.blogspot.com, for a minute. I attached a beautiful paragraph that I really feel compelled to share. It was written by someone I met at the Philly Wizard World Convention, who read my book, has kept in contact with me, and emailed me this wonderful statement:

~~~”I have been so fully engrossed in your delicious book, delicious might seem an odd word used to describe a book but it is actually a term I stole from my literature professor in college…her and I shared the same passion for the written word, and she coined the term delicious in referring to either a book, paragraph, or sentence that was so rich and creatively structured that you can taste it, it’s those passages that are so very perfect that you feel every emotion and see every image as though you were the character. The thing I love most is that although [Insperatus] is a familiar genre, it is in no way cliche’ or predictable, and you’ve created an entire alternative universe wherein your story takes place, this is not easily done, as you well know, it is a world of magic and mysticism, where vampires, witches, and werewolves do exist, but so historically accurate that it makes it seem like it could be true. I can tell that, in the books to come, you will continue to delve deeper in developing not only your characters but also this fantastic alternative universe, I hope that you will continue to include factual events in our history in your story and give alternative mystical explanations for certain things. …To me your book has all the romance of James Cameron’s Titanic, the unbridled passion of Twilight, and all the mysticism and adventure of Harry Potter, it is like all my favorite story teller’s got together and wrote a book, you are so very talented and unbelievbly creative. I have not yet finished, I have about 20 chapters to go, and I am at the point where I cant wait to see how it ends but I dont want to rush it because I dont want it to be over yet, when did you say the 2nd book would be out? : )…Thank you so much for introducing me to [Insperatus].“~~~

To me, that is the most touching thing–to hear such amazing feedback from readers of my book. Thanks so much, Lisa!

This summer has come as the perfect time. After I was being pretty bogged down with school [exams were the worst] and work, I’ve finally had the chance to really focus back in Insperatus and think about what the best thing is for my book.

So I’m in the midst of contacting bookstores to order Insperatus in-store, contacting agents (which is super hard), and if I find a good agent then trying to be picked up by a huge publishing company such as Bantam Books or Simon & Schuster. Being a writer/author comes so easily to me, and it’s something I will always do no matter if I’m published or not, but to really be a published author is a whoooooooole different ballgame; one that requires full-time attention and constant movement, or you’ll suddenly find yourself really far behind the eightball.

Needless to say I have a huge to-do list, one that continually grows and never gets smaller, but it’s something that I’m tackling with joy. I figure I’ve gotten this far, why can’t I keep going? And if I could give my readers one assignment, it would be this: TALK. TALK about Insperatus, if you love it. The biggest reason good books don’t sell is because no one KNOWS they exist, and the only way for people to KNOW they exist is to hear about them. So please–5 minutes–hop on Barnes & Noble’s website and write a little review. Tell your friends who you think would be interested. You guys could get Insperatus farther than I could ever get it alone.

Instead of posting all my art on artofkellyvaresio.blogspot.com, I realized it’d be much smarter for me to upload everything onto my art account at deviantart.com. There is a link to the rightish area that can lead you there–it’s an art site, and since I already had an account [MsTwennyFaahve] I went ahead and uploaded all my art onto there. My rates for commission work are on there, too, so check it out!

And artwork aside, I have been looking into a new publisher for my sequel. While it will not be released for about another year, number two to Insperatus is over half way finished. So while I’m doing art and finding a new publisher, I am also trying to find a good agent to pitch Insperatus to large companies such as Bantam, Penguin, and the like. But you know what big publishers look for most in a book? The authors platform. How many REVIEWS the book has. How many fan ratings. Things like that. So please–let other websites as well as other people know how you feel. Promote Insperatus.

Follow Kelly on Twitter & FB!

Want to set up a book signing?

If anyone would like to try and set up a signing, reading, or lecture from/with Kelly Varesio regarding Insperatus, contact her at KVARESIO@AOL.COM. She's already been a guest speaker as part of Woodstown High School's Creative Writing classes, as well as high school career fairs. She is looking and very open to not only promote Insperatus, but to also talk to others like herself about following their dreams, whether it be in writing or other areas of life.

“Dear Kelly…

...I picked up Insperatus at the Wizard World convention in Philadelphia. I just finished it tonight, and I wanted to just tell you how happy I was with it and really hope you continue to expand on this world.I thought it was a great story from start to finish. When Traith turned Rein I must say I wasn't expecting that, but was pleased. And the epilouge was intriguing...I would love to know how Carden got back to Romania, how did he survive the ship. Hopefully that will be material for a sequel! Great Book! I will be looking for more!"
--Cyndi

What People Are Saying

"This book is sooooooooo amazing and well put together and a great plot and great romance...And did I mention amazing? I did? Oh well, it's sooo amazing, it needs to be repeated!!! -Caitlyn, reader."
"SERIOUSLY! EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK! I LOVED IT!!!!!!!"
"I never thought I would be able to read a book just for the sake of reading a book. I was always too distracted or busy doing something else. I finished this book in 6 days, and I loved it. :) Thanks Kelly. :)"
"Better than Twilight!"
"The romance of Titanic, Mysticism of Twilight, and Action of Harry Potter."
"Insperatus doesn't fit a mold of any kind. It overflows and trickles past this and that, grabbing pieces here and there. It truely keeps you on the edge of your seat. I can't wait for the second one!"
"From beginning to end it kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. I found it difficult to put down for exactly the same reason. People who have seen me reading it I have told they should read it too."